Singapore HDB Kitchen Carpenter: Open Kitchen Rules Explained

A Singapore HDB kitchen carpenter gets asked for one layout more than any other: knock the kitchen wall down and open it to the living room. It is the most requested change in 2025 and 2026 renovations, and also the one with the most rules attached. The good news is that most HDB kitchens can go open. The catch is that you have to prove your wall is the right kind before you fall in love with the idea.

Which wall can come down

HDB splits walls into two types. Load-bearing walls hold the block up and are drawn as thick solid lines on your floor plan. They can never be hacked, and no permit will be granted. Non-load-bearing partition walls sit between rooms and usually separate the kitchen from the living area in older flats. HDB generally approves removing these, because the building does not depend on them.

Newer flats bring a third type: Ferrolite partition walls. These are lighter panels that may be removed only with HDB approval and a licensed contractor. Your carpenter should pull the floor plan at the first meeting and mark the wall type in red before promising you an open layout. Designing around a wall you cannot remove is how budgets blow up.

The permit and the five-day wait

Every wall hack needs HDB's written approval as a renovation permit. There is no HDB fee to apply, and your licensed contractor submits it, not you. Standard hacking of tiles, false ceilings, fixtures, and existing carpentry is approved the same day through the portal. Structural work, like building a new wall or relocating a door, needs a Professional Engineer endorsement and takes two to four weeks.

Instant approval does not mean you start that afternoon. The permit must be displayed at the unit, and neighbours within a two-unit radius need written notice at least five days before. Build that gap into the schedule, because the clock starts at approval, not at your excitement.

What an open kitchen asks of you

An open kitchen puts your cabinets on permanent display, so finish quality matters more than in an enclosed one. A strong extractor hood becomes essential, because smoke and smell now travel into the living room. Island or peninsula counters need 1 to 1.2 metres of clearance on every side, which a 4-room flat can afford only if the layout is planned early.

Working hours still apply. Noisy work runs 9am to 5pm on weekdays, with nothing on Sundays or public holidays. An open kitchen means your neighbours hear the hack from the living side too, so the notice and the quiet hours are not formalities, they are what keep the job peaceful.

Smoke, smell, and the living room

An open kitchen shares its air, so the extractor hood stops being optional. A hood with strong suction and a duct to the outside clears the wok hei before it reaches the sofa, and without it the smell of last night's curry lives in the upholstery for days. Plan the duct path with the carpenter and the electrician together, because the hood needs a power point and a route through the wall that the open layout now exposes. The neighbours will also thank you, since an open kitchen carries cooking noise into the living side where they hear it more clearly than before.

Open kitchens suit how Singapore families actually live, cooking and talking in the same breath. Check the wall type first, file the permit, and the wall comes down on schedule rather than on hope.